As you probably know very well, the impairment of upper limb function significantly impacts daily life quality and necessitates enhanced neurological control. This poses a formidable challenge in the realm of rehabilitation due to its intricate nature.
An interesting 3-week rehabilitation monitoring experiment: "Muscle Synergy Plasticity in Motor Function Recovery after Stroke," has just been published in IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering. It was conducted to assess the motor function of stroke patients at different stages of rehabilitation based on muscle synergy performance.
It showed that high-functioning patients were superior to low-functioning patients in terms of motor function plasticity towards healthy individuals. Moreover, there was a high positive correlation between muscle synergies and clinical scale scores in high-functioning patients, and the significance gradually emerged with treatment, highlighting the potential of muscle synergy plasticity as a valuable tool for monitoring rehabilitation progress.
The potential of this study was also demonstrated for elucidating the physiological mechanisms underlying motor function reconstruction within the central nervous system.
ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=10500442
Sheng, J. Wang, G. Tan, H. Chang, Q. Xie and H. Liu, , doi: 10.1109/TNSRE.2024.3389022., doi: 10.1109/TNSRE.2024.3389022.
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A review in the Journal of Advanced Nursing (Task-oriented training in rehabilitation after stroke: systematic review) was conducted in Holland by Resnick et al (42 papers in the final dataset, including nine systematic reviews) to provide an overview of the evidence in the literature on task-oriented training of stroke survivors and its relevance in daily nursing practice.
It revealed that studies of task-related training showed more benefit for functional outcomes compared with traditional therapies. Active use of task-oriented training with stroke
survivors will lead to improvements in functional outcomes and overall health-related quality of life.
The conclusion was that generally, task-oriented rehabilitation proved to be more effective and that many interventions are feasible for nurses and can be performed in a ward or at home. Further, that nurses can and should play an important role in creating opportunities to practise meaningful functional tasks outside of regular therapy sessions.
This paper is now 15 years old!
The evidence has been there for so long, but time and resources render this often so difficult for nurses to do in practice, where management of wards is usually the priority, building out time for nurses to do this. Nurses recommending possibilities to patients and families 'how to do it' when they reach community though would be good...
Here's Emily Newton, senior lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University, after Assessment on the ARNI Course Cohort 1 of 3, 2023, with a double-sided portable task-board made by her and her colleague Hayley, also at the University. Thanks for coming to the course, ladies!
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#ARNIstrokerehab #neuroplasticity #strokerecovery #arnistroke #strokerehabilitation #neurorehab #arnistrokecharity #ARNIstrokerehab www.nrtimes.co.uk/why-the-arni-way-is-up/...
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ARNI aims to enhance individual's ability to manage their own rehabilitation and exercise programme. This is achieved through a variety of strategies and techniques including education in exercise principles after stroke, developing skills in goal setting, functional problem solving and self-monitoring, and establishing a programme of regular independent home-based exercise.
ARNI is designed as a personalised programme with substantial one-to-one training to ensure individual tailoring of activities, feedback and progression, and encouragement to work at the edge of personal capacity. It also often combines these features with the benefits of group programmes which include peer support, pair work and efficient use of resources, particularly the ARNI Delivery Manual (Successful Stroke Survivor) 2021 updated version.
www.arni.uk.com
#ARNIstrokerehab #neuroplasticity #strokerecovery #arnistroke #strokerehabilitation #neurorehab #arnistrokecharity #ARNIstrokerehab
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Via a network of specialist instructors and therapists across the UK, stroke survivors learn ARNI’s functional “retraining” strategies; aimed at enabling them to take charge of their own recovery.
Call us on 0203 053 0111 or email support@arni.uk.com to find out if there's an instructor near you who can help you with your recovery.
www.arni.uk.com
#arnistrokerehab #neuroplasticity #strokerecovery #arnistroke #strokerehabilitation #neurorehab #arnistrokecharity #ARNIstrokerehab
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Hi all - I've been working with Health Innovation to produce ‘My Choice’ an accessible information resource to help people live well with dementia. Since it was ‘launched’ last Thursday there have been 360 downloads already… and we will be seeking funding to evaluate and develop it further. What's the link to stroke?
Well, quite a startling fact: almost a quarter of people who have had a stroke will go on to develop vascular dementia after about three to six months. How about that? As you know, dementia can affect your memory, thinking, communication, mood and behaviour. These changes are due to damage in your brain, which can happen in different ways. It also often gets worse over time.
Do click this link and also send to others - we want this to reach as many people as possible (I did page 14, on physical activity) Tom]
arc-kss.nihr.ac.uk/document-download/527-my-choice-booklet/file
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Exercise: Wrist Up n’Downs
This is a great warm-up and cool-down exercise to do for your wrist and the forearm. This exercise is designed to work the ranges of wrist flexion and extension. If you have high tone, you may find both movements extremely hard to do. By encouraging this stretch with your good hand to the limits of your current flexion and extension (being very careful not to push too far), in a rhythmic way, you will perform better in task-related activities. Figs 1 - 6. Feel on your affected hand for the top knuckle of your index finger. Now, with the pad of your thumb, feel for the long bone (metacarpal bone) that runs from your knuckle to your wrist. You should be able to feel this without problems. Slide your thumb one whole inch back along this bone and press down slightly (Fig. 1). Then, using the rest of your fingers around the back of your affected hand, pull the affected hand round so that your palm points away from you (Fig. 2). Now press down hard with the good hand’s thumb on the point described above. This may be slightly uncomfortable; if it does, shift your thumb so that the thumb pad is pressing down on a greater area around that point. Yoespecially your little finger, which should be controlled at its very base by the little finger of your good hand (Fig. 3). You can see that by pushing down on the point on the top of your affected hand with the thumb and pulling the edge of your hand up, you are creating a rotational effect, which serves to straighten your arm too. your affected arm’s wrist finds itself at an extreme angle, fully extended (Fig. 4). Now you are going to reverse the technique and pull your wrist up to your chest. This will release all pressure on your wrist until you reach the top position. Release the thumb hold you found at the start of the exercise, and simply slide your good hand a little further up your affected hand, still controlling the edge of your affected hand with the little finger of your good hand. Now you should simply have the good hand resting on the back of the affected hand (Fig. 5). Press the palm of your affected hand towards the inside of your wrist. Again, be very careful. You should feel some discomfort: if so, don’t worry; you are doing the stretch right. If it hurts, stop it immediately. If not, stay in the top stretch for a few counts, then release it and pull your affected hand down into the lower stretch again (Fig. 6). You don’t have to adjust your good hand back to finding the spot on the back of your hand. As long as you control the edge of your affected hand with the fingertips of your good hand, you will be fine, and can then rhythmically do the stretch. Turn it into an exercise, with only one or two seconds between smooth repetitions. Try to think, ‘Up, hold… and down. Up, hold... and down’. The initial set-up sounds complicated, but once you have practiced and understand it, your good hand will go straight to these points, and you can perform the technique efficiently. Study the description here and the illustrations: don’t pass this exercise over as being too difficult. It’s not. Again, be careful not to hurt yourself ‘unknowingly’. You have just placed your wrist in a compromised position: go easy until you become sensitive to the way the activity feels.
From The Successful Stroke Survivor book by Tom Balchin
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#exerciseafterstroke #strokeexercise #neurorehabilitation #strokerecovery #strokerehab #strokerecoveryexercises #neurorehab #strokerehabilitation #arnistrokerehab #neuroplasticity
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Would you like to get up from the floor without any support? YES!
Would you like to effectively tackle spasticity in your hand? YES!
Would you like to become stronger and less dependent? YES!
The Successful Stroke Survivor will show you how, and much much more.
Get Your Copy Now!
545 PAGES (A4 format)
690 illustrations, 356 photos, 130 strategies
The first (and only) book/manual written for stroke survivors to be endorsed with the Quality Mark of the United Kingdom Forum for Stroke Training.
#strokerecovery #neuroplasticity #neurorehab #strokerehabilitation #strokeexercise #strokerehab #neurorehabilitation #strokerecoveryexercises #exerciseafterstroke
www.strokesolutions.co.uk/product/successful-stroke-survivor-manual/
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A study being completed by Tom Oliani as part of his doctorate in Clinical Psychology at the University of Sheffield concerns well-being after stroke. 
One Comment
I am 71, female, and had a stroke 17yrs ago. I lay on the floor for 28hrs, then an indeterminate time on the ambulance, going through A/E, then into a bed, when I awoke my daughter asked me something, I answered her, and she told me later she didn’t understand a word I said. I stayed in hospital for 3 weeks, not getting much better, then I went to my sister-in-law, who was a nurse. I had, and paid for, a Physio, OT, speech therapist, and by the time I left, 5weeks, I could walkabout 4/5 feet, then collapsing, my speech went up from 25% to about 70%. I tried to put my feet on the stairs, and I remember thinking I’d never walk up stairs again. I next went to Wolfson, and they were brilliant, I stayed for the full 3mnths, and at the end of that, I could walk about 25ft, I did art, they taught me to cook a bit, to iron, etc. When I was taken for walks by my physio for 6 weeks,she asked me what I would do and I said Art, and could I do Pilates – she said “oh no” and I said to myself “You wait”. The following g day I went and signed up for Art & Pilates! I broke my arm a year later, was taken by ambulance to Kingston again, and the radiographer said “you’ve broken your arm before” and the only time I might have broken was when I had a Stroke! I was showed how to go up an escalator. I went on to do Pilates twice a week for 13yrs, I went to INS once a week, while there I stood up in front of St George’s students and told them about my journey, and told them about my broken arm, so that they could think about it, and remember it! Then I moved here to Lynwood Village, and have a pool, and I tried to swim on my back with our trainer, and I did it, I couldn’t believe it – so when it’s open, I swim for an hour three times a week! I do Art, I used to go to the cinema and to see the theatre there, the real theatre, we have outings, I do sewing up of the squares to make blankets, do things here and just enjoy everything! I have always lived on my own, once the children have flown, been seeing them, and going to Denmark to see one daughter & family, been on a cruise, been to fly to Barbados. And I am one handed, my left hand which I had to learn to write again, and my right leg is a little iffy, but I just soldier on, and I enjoy everything, for 17yrs!!! My children tell me I’m dogged, I think I’m just cantankerous!!!